Prior to 2020 when the world came to a screeching halt, virtual workforce hiring and the ability to work-from-home was something that was part of the daily routine of more than 5+ million Americans.
Since then companies have been forced to embrace and adapt to what has been called a remote work revolution and allow the majority of their staff to clock in and out from the comfort of their own homes.
Many companies have reported that since the recent changes in remote workforce, they are finding that their employees are generally more productive and are meeting deadlines as expected despite not being in the office.
However, one thing that remote work lacks is having the bond that a team usually builds when physically working together at the office.
As physical team building activities came to a standstill or were confined to sites like Zoom calls, Skype chats, or Google Meet sessions, communication and collaboration became a headache for companies.
That is where companies felt the urge to embrace virtual activities for their team. They felt the need for that corporate relationship that once prevailed in work-from-office setups.
Virtual Team Building Activities – What is it?
Basically, remote team bonding is the effort companies need to give to build connections between their remote employees. This is usually done to boost employee productivity, morale, team engagement and more.
In an office setting, workers are surrounded by colleagues, managers, and other people. Spending 8-9 hours with them daily brings a sense of corporate friendship and unity.
This unity is essential because when dealing with important projects, everyone knows who to turn to in case anyone needs a hand in completing a task and workers can effortlessly collaborate once they get to know each other.
Top Three Virtual Team Building Activities
- Encourage Recognition Among Team Members
One of the unique things about being a part of a team is knowing that you have support from other team members. This keeps an employee going even on the toughest days.
Another thing that works like wonder is celebrating employees’ achievements and encouraging their recognition.
Businesses need to ensure that they have a reward-and-recognition platform where employees can feel important and valued in one way or another.
In order to do so, companies need to partner or hire third-party service providers that offer innovative team bonding activities for remote workforces. Something like a celebration hub to appreciate workers will be more meaningful than thanking them on Skype or Google Meet.
- Engaging Workers With Icebreaker Games & Quizzes
After the onboarding process completes, newly recruited remote employees work from home and have yet to physically meet their teammates.
Techniques such as icebreaker games and quizzes work well in these situations as it makes new and old employees interact and engage with each other. With leaderboards and score cards, the fun only increases and everyone starts to feel more comfortable with each other.
- Friday Night Virtual Office Vibes
Friday afternoon and evenings are a great time to set up virtual games and team bonding experiences for your employees as the team will be more relaxed due to the weekend ahead.
If you don’t think you have the skills to host your own virtual team building games then the next best thing would be to hire a third-party firm that delivers unique team bonding experiences for your employees.
Many third party companies specialize in team building for businesses like yours and they offer a wide variety of team building activities including games, quizzes, and other happy hour events.
Conclusion
Recruiting a team is easy, but team building programs and activities help to unite and build a bond among team members. It can also help your team boost productivity and ensure that they know and understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
